Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
After a five-day jeep ride we finally camp on the green banks of the Manasorovar.
We endured 1000 km of dusty tracks. Now we have reached the Kailash region.
On the south side of the Manasorovar protrudes the Gurlamandata range.
Opposite, at the northern end of the lake, rises the Kailash.
His icy crown is 6714 meters high and is still 200 meters above the plateau.
Sven Hedin had assigned the Kailash to the Transhimalaya,
in his opinion a chain of mountains running parallel to the main Himalaya range.
Today we know that such a cohesive Transhimalaya range does not exist.
The Kailash is situated to the north of the holy lakes Rakshashtal and Manasorovar.
For the Tibetans they symbolize - by reason of their unusual shape and different location - moon and sun.
The pilgrims way around the Kailash, called by the Tibetans Parikrama or Kora, starts at the hamlet of Darchen.
It runs clockwise, first up to the western Lha Chu Valley,
crosses the Dolma La pass in the north and follows the Lam Chu and the Dzong Chu in the east back to Darchen.
Darchen is a filthy place full of Chinese military and bureaucrats.
We leave as quickly as possible and sunrise sees us westbound.
The first traveller joining our group is one of the wild dogs.
He looks a very neat and is also pretty lazy.
On the first nice sunny spot, he simply lays down and leaves us alone on our pilgrimage.